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'No risk of self-harm': the official verdict on the youngest child to die in penal custody By Ian Herbert Published: 02 May 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2502083.ece The youngest child to die in custody in Britain was not recognised as a suicide risk in reports by social workers, despite having been admitted to hospital nine times after harming himself. An inquest into the death of Adam Rickwood was told yesterday that magistrates who sent the 14-year-old into custody were told in a pre-sentencing report that he constituted "no risk of self-harm". The decision to send him to Hassockfield secure training centre near Consett, Co Durham, also drew on the results of a form completed by Lancashire County Council's youth offending team which indicated that Adam had had no contact with mental services, had received no kind of mental diagnosis and had never harmed himself. In fact, the boy had been in hospital seven times after repeatedly overdosing on alcohol/drug mixes and cutting his wrists twice. Lancashire County Council's director of children's integrated services, Gill Rigg, said Adam's mental health record was the "key, relevant factor" in determining whether he should have been in custody at all. "I accept that was a very critical and essential piece of information that should have been on [the] form," she told the inquest at Chester-le-Street magistrates' court, Co Durham. Adam's despair at being sent to a secure unit 150 miles from home was evident in his last letter to his mother and stepfather, Carol and John Pounder, which was read to the jury. "I need to be at home," he wrote. "If I could have the chance to be at home and with my family I will never get in trouble again in my life. I will do anything to be with you's [sic] but if people try to stop that I will flip." The inquest heard that Adam, from Burnley, Lancashire, was a profoundly vulnerable child who had been known to social services from the age of three and had been referred to Lancashire's child and adolescent mental health unit. He seemed to respond to those who found time for him, particularly his paternal grandfather, who was wheelchair-bound. "He used to lie in bed with granddad, watching TV [and] eating sweets [with him]. They shared everything," Mrs Pounder told the jury. It was after his grandfather's death that Adam, then 11, entered a spiral of decline. He fell in with a group of older boys, took cannabis, was convicted of burglary and had been excluded from school. He was remanded into custody after being charged with wounding a man in Burnley - a claim that had been withdrawn before he died. An absence of secure accommodation meant he was temporarily sent to the local Elm Tree children's home - a private establishment with a high ratio of staff to children, where he flourished. But the cost to the council of keeping him there meant he was removed when a secure unit place became available at one of the relatively new "training centres" - which bear more resemblance to prisonsand have fewer social work staff. When Adam first rang his mother from the secure unit, he was desolate. "He was really upset and said he hated being away from home. I [told him] I had warned him he would end up going away one day, and that he had to calm down," Mrs Pounder said. She made the 300-mile trip twice-weekly to see him, but Adam indicated he would harm himself after they had a meeting with his social worker and a member of staff at Hassockfield. Mrs Pounder said: "I told [Hassockfield] what he had said, [voiced] my concerns and I was told not to worry; that Adam would be under constant watch." In their last telephone conversation, on 8 August 2004, Adam had happily discussed his anticipated return home, following the retraction of the wounding allegation. But at 9.30pm that evening, his mother received a call from Hassockfield to say that Adam had been in an altercation with staff in which, she told the jury, he had been "constrained either by the twisting or squeezing of his nose". She was told her son would not speak to her that evening. At 3.20am the following morning police officers contacted her to reveal he had hanged himself with his bootlaces. "I asked how often Adam had been checked and I was told it was every 15 minutes," she said. "He had self-harmed before but he always wanted to be found.It was only ever a cry for help." The inquest continues. _________________________________________________________________ Txt a lot? Get Messenger FREE on your mobile. https://livemessenger.mobile.uk.msn.com/ ________________End of message______________________ This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about the list administratione should be sent to [log in to unmask] Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.